Review of the Sun Also Rises

As we are all stuck inside for the time being I’ve decided to read more, and publish my thoughts to help pass the time.

• First off is The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway.

So what is there to say? its freaking Hemingway the man reinvented the novel and the use of language in creative writing helping to usher in the Modernist movement. The language is sparse and dry and doesn’t focus on the things and normal story does.

The story of an American foreign correspondent and his collection of rich American and British friends as they vacation through France and Spain is pretty cut and dry but then its more how the story is told than the story itself is whats interesting here. It does tap into the frivolity of the concerns of the rich and powerful which I believe was a favorite Hemingway topic.

I do also enjoy the way he presents the inane, drollness of having to sit through a press release by some undersecretary of Foreign Affairs on the minutia of government. Anyone who has covered a dry political event will be able to relate.

I would be interested to know what Spaniards think of Hemingway’s portrayal of their country as a backward violent place where rich Brits and Americans can go to drink as screw as they please as the most authentic portrayal. Of course this is pre-Franco and all the developments of the 20th-century but I would still be interested in their take.

On a related note, I really have to wonder if Hemingway isn’t partially to blame for Spain currently being seen as primarily a place where American college kids can go for study abroad and spring break. I wonder if the citizens of Pamplona have tired yet of the endless hordes who come yearly to participate in the Running of the Bulls